Skip to content
TRENDING:
Donald Trump
Advertisement
Author profile
Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

Ben Wolfgang is a national security correspondent at The Washington Times, a senior member of its Threat Status team, and the host and producer of the award-winning Threat Status Podcast. Ben covers national security, foreign policy, military affairs, the defense industry and the rapidly evolving landscape of military technology.
A Pennsylvania native, he joined The Washington Times in 2011 after serving as a political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa. Over the course of his career, Ben has covered the White House, Congress, and four presidential campaigns.
His reporting has earned recognition from some of journalism's most respected organizations, including the Virginia Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists' Washington, D.C. Chapter, among other honors.
Ben has interviewed heads of state, chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, senior military commanders, cabinet secretaries, senior government officials, and the CEOs of many of the nation's largest and most influential defense companies.
Ben is a frequent guest on broadcast media, with appearances on C-SPAN, the Sirius XM POTUS channel, and other outlets.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

In this Sept. 7, 2020, file photo released by the U.S. Navy, the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz transits the Arabian Sea. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Elliot Schaudt/U.S. Navy via AP) ** FILE **

USS Nimitz to stay in Middle East amid threats from Iran

A defiant Iran picked fights around the world Monday, flouting its promises under an international nuclear deal, seizing a South Korean oil tanker for dubious reasons, and announcing a major military drone exercise likely to further inflame tensions with the U.S. during President Trump's final days in office.

January 4, 2021
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, left, and former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, sit together on stage during the commissioning ceremony of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., Saturday, July, 22, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Dick Cheney, other Pentagon ex-chiefs say time over for questioning election

Questions about the 2020 presidential election have been litigated in court and it is time for Congress and the entire nation to accept President-elect Joseph R. Biden's victory, 10 former defense secretaries wrote in an op-ed Sunday that warned against any attempts to involve the Pentagon in electoral disputes.

January 3, 2021
On Thursday, the Pentagon announced that more than 5,000 sailors and Marines with the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group are headed home after a 10-month deployment. They had been in Somalia. (Tech. Sgt. Christopher Ruano/Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa via AP)

Trump efforts to end ‘forever wars’ fall short

Most of the troops in question, critics contend, are not coming home but are simply being moved to other locations, often in the same dangerous corners of the world and sometimes with the same mission.

December 31, 2020
In this file photo, the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8) conducts flight deck operations in the Indian Ocean. Officials with U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group and 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived in the Indian Ocean off Somalia's coast on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist John Lill/Released) **FILE**

U.S dispatches 5,000 sailors and Marines off coast of Somalia

The Pentagon this week dispatched 5,000 sailors and Marines to the waters off the coast of Somalia, offering a show of strength to extremist groups such as al-Shabaab as U.S. ground forces prepare to exit the chaotic country.

December 23, 2020
In this Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, image taken from a video provided by Defense.gov, acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller speaks at the Pentagon in Washington. (Defense.gov via AP) ** FILE **

Christopher Miller visits Afghanistan amid troop drawdown

Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan Tuesday, meeting with Afghan officials and American troops as the U.S. continues a major drawdown from the country during President Trump's final weeks in office.

December 22, 2020
The U.S. Army employs a M270A1 Multiple Launch Rocket System during the first live-fire exercise from a Europe-based MLRS unit since 2004. (Image: U.S. Army, Grafenwoehr, Germany)

Army’s long-range cannon hits target 43 miles away

The Army's groundbreaking long-range cannon hit a target 43 miles away over the weekend, military officials said, marking another successful test of an artillery system that the Pentagon says will give the U.S. a major battlefield advantage over foes such as China and Russia.

December 22, 2020
In this photo made available by the U.S. Navy, the guided-missile submarine USS Georgia, front, with the guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal, transit the Strait of Hormuz in Persian Gulf, Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. The vessels traversed the strategically vital waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula on Monday, the U.S. Navy said, a rare announcement that comes amid rising tensions with Iran. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Indra Beaufort/U.S. Navy via AP)

Trump Iran pressure imperils Biden nuclear deal return desire

China, Russia and European nations seeking to salvage the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran said Monday that they would welcome a U.S. return to the accord, but President Trump's escalation of pressure on the Iranian regime during his final weeks in office could hobble the incoming Biden administration's pursuit of diplomacy.

December 21, 2020
In this Feb. 16, 2013, file photo, North Korean defectors and South Korean activists prepare to launch helium balloons carrying leaflets against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attached to them, during an anti-North Korea rally denouncing North Korea's third nuclear test at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, in Paju, South Korea. South Korea's parliament on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020, approved a contentious revised act criminalizing the flying of leaflets toward North Korea, despite fierce criticism that it's sacrificing its freedom of expression principle to improve ties with rival North Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

South Korean officials defend controversial propaganda law

Top South Korean officials on Monday defended a controversial new law banning the flying of leaflets and other propaganda into North Korea by balloon, arguing that the measure will protect citizens living along the militarized border between the two nations.

December 21, 2020